Dollar falls on US jobs figures

CommSec: Market Close 4 Aug 17 Market retreats for a third session2:15

The ASX 200 has slipped 0.25 percent on Friday, held back by a 3.9 percent fall in CBA shares. Over the week though, the index rose 0.3 percent.

August 4th 2017

2 years ago

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Monday is a bank holiday.Source:istock

THE Australian dollar is virtually unchanged against its US counterpart despite the greenback getting a significant boost from surprisingly good key US jobs figures. At 0635 AEST on Monday, the Australian dollar was worth 79.21 US cents, from 79.22 US cents on Friday.

Westpac’s Imre Speizer said he Australian dollar had fallen after solid US jobs figures on Friday (US time) gave the US dollar a significant boost, but it did not drop as much as other major currencies.

“Non-farm payrolls rose 209,000,000 in July, stronger than expected. That’s a second consecutive read above recent trend,” Mr Speizer said in a Monday morning note. “The US dollar index closed up 0.8 per cent on Friday ... The Australian dollar fell from 0.7974 to 0.7891 post US jobs, closing at 0.7922.”

The main event risk for the local currency on Monday would be the ANZ jobs ads data, which are still set to be released despite Monday being a bank holiday. The local currency is up against the euro and the yen.